a curious thing happened in the days following barack obama's election. a group of texans filed a petition on a white house website. they wanted texas to secede from the not so united states of america. the movement spread further encompassing each of the 50 states in the union. it's a ridiculous exercise that will go nowhere. there are some real impulses across the atlantic. europe might soon have a new independent state. look at catalonia. a region in northeast spain that includes barcelona. last sunday, they held parliamentary elections. a majority of the winners campaigned on a platform of secession. the vote follows an unprecedented demonstration in september when about one million catalons marched the streets demanding statehood. to put it in perspective, the entire population is only about 7.5 million. the next step could be a public referendum on breaking away. consider scotland which has already reached that point. in october british prime minister david cameron agreed to a deal allowing scotts to vote in 2014 as to whether they want to secede. t